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“We need a boat,” Miriam said, snapping her seatbelt in place.
Macy looked at her incredulously, with no clear intention to start the car until Miriam explained. Miriam’s head raced with possibilities and plans. Tanner was alive. And that meant she could get him back.
“Tanner’s alive,” Miriam said. “Bark has him.”
“The guy who’s boat we infiltrated?” Macy asked.
“Infiltrated?” Miriam laughed. “Yeah, I suppose that’s what we did. We must have just missed him, because Newt thinks he took the boat out with Tanner on it.”
Macy unbuckled her seatbelt and threw herself across the seat, swallowing Miriam in an unexpected hug. The smell of makeup and hair product filled Miriam’s nostrils, forcing her to turn her head away from the red mess of hair to catch a breath. Miriam tentatively wrapped her arms around Macy, slightly uncomfortable, but happy to share the excitement with someone.
Macy then popped back into her seat, strapped back in, and started the car. “Okay. So, we need a boat.”
Her hands on the wheel, Macy waited for instruction, but Miriam didn’t have any to give yet. Yes, the boat. Weapons would be nice, but she’d have to improvise without them. Dangerous, perhaps. But what choice did she have? If the coast guard could manage to find Bark without running into the kraken, then maybe she could take the time to plan a proper hunt, but the situation as it stood required action.
“How do we get a boat?” Macy asked.
“Newt’s. Go to Newt’s,” Miriam said, before she’d even really thought about it.
“Um. Okay,” Macy stammered. “And where is that?”
Right. Miriam had so much information from Tommy that she hadn’t relayed to Macy yet. But they couldn’t afford the time now. Macy would just have to trust her.
“Stacy’s. Go to Stacy’s.”
Macy nodded, threw the car in drive, and drove to the highway that hugged Cape Madre’s coastline. The hour was late, so the beach was empty, but with the blockades up it seemed especially eerie. Miriam wondered when the beach had been shut down. Did Tommy do that?
“He took Stacy, too,” Miriam added.
Macy didn’t say anything, but Miriam watched her mouth turn down, and only then noticed that Macy’s left leg bounced up and down. What did that mean? Was Macy nervous? Scared?
Miriam laid a hand on her friend’s outstretched forearm. “You don’t have to come with me.”
Macy nodded, glanced at Miriam, then wrestled her arm away to wipe her nose. “No. You can’t do this alone. I don’t know what I can do to help, but what’s the worst that could happen?”
Death. Violent, terrible death.
But that certainly wasn’t an answer that either of them needed to hear out loud, so Miriam chose to remain quiet.
“Catch me up,” Macy requested. “If we’re going to do this, I need to know what you know. Not just bits and pieces.”
Macy flipped the turn signal and veered the car away from the coastline, up into the suburban hills. They didn’t have much more time, but maybe Miriam could relay it all. Or enough of it.
It came out fast, Miriam’s words tumbling over one another as she described the interrogation of Newt, but Macy kept up, nodding and “mmhmming” with each new nugget of information.
They were parked in front of Stacy’s house before Miriam finished, but she kept going anyway, the car idling quietly in the dark. Once the facts were out, she focused in on the part that really bothered her. The part that she couldn’t explain. The part that felt like it had an explanation she just couldn’t grasp yet.
“That’s really weird,” Macy said once she had time to speak. “It’s like they’re in love with the kraken or something.”
“Yeah,” Miriam responded. “It felt almost like Newt didn’t even know what he was doing. I mean, he knew he was doing it, but even his own actions seemed to confuse him.”
“Maybe Bark brainwashed him?” Macy offered.
Miriam considered and quickly dismissed the notion. “I don’t think so. It sounds like Bark’s just as far in as Newt. And Joe was too.”
“What about Tanner?” Macy asked. “Is he gonna be that way?”
“I hope not,” Miriam replied, herself wondering what it would mean if Tanner also became enamored. Surely, he wouldn’t, though. He’d seen enough to have perspective.
Macy turned off the car. “Maybe they can’t help it. Maybe something’s wrong with them.”
Diplostomum pseudopathaceum.
Macy’s statement jostled something loose in Miriam’s brain, and it forcefully surfaced. The fish that ate the snails. The birds that ate the fish. The snails that ate the bird droppings. A circle of life. A complex parasite intent on keeping itself and its hosts alive. Could this be it? Not that particular parasite, of course, but something else. Something new.
Miriam had been intent on hunting down a kraken, a giant sea creature straight out of pirate myths. Maybe her cryptid was smaller than she expected. Maybe it lived inside the kraken. Inside Bark. Inside Newt. Inside Emma.
Inside Tanner.
“A parasite!” she exclaimed.
Macy looked confused. “Huh?”
“What if the kraken infects people with a parasite? Through its tentacles. Or its suction cups. Doesn’t matter. Somehow. And what if the purpose of that parasite is to protect its host?”
“You’re talking about the poop thing again, aren’t you?” Macy asked.
Miriam felt the electricity firing through her; something she took as a sign that she was at least on the right track. “Well, I don’t know if that’s a part of this particular one. But it would explain everything. If Bark and Newt were infected, then maybe it’s driving them to protect the kraken. To feed it. To...”
“Love it?” Macy finished the sentence.
Could a parasite do that? Probably not exactly, but close enough that other humans might interpret it that way. But maybe it was just a survival mechanism. The details were surely complicated and impossible for the two of them to fully understand, but if Miriam could get Tanner back, then they’d have a willing test subject. They could isolate it. Study it. It would be a huge breakthrough. Maybe even more exciting than the kraken itself. To nerds like her, anyway. The media would surely prefer the kraken.
“We need to find Tanner,” Miriam said. “Then we can test him and find out.”
Macy shrugged. “Why not just test Newt? They have him already, right?”
Of course. Miriam reached for the phone in her pocket, then paused. If she called Tommy now, he might catch on and stop her from what she intended to do. No, she’d call him after.
“Maybe. But we gotta get out on the water first,” Miriam said.
“Uh, we’re in the suburbs. There’s no water here.”
“No, there’s no water. But I’m hoping that we’ll find the key to a boat.”
“Stacy has a boat?”
Pointing to the dilapidated house across the street, Miriam replied, “No. But Newt does.”
***
She knew it was a long shot. Surely, circumstances favored the key to the Mama Jean being safely tucked away in Newt’s pocket. But Tommy had told her that he’d caught Newt trying to cover up the scene, and if that meant getting dirty, then maybe he’d emptied his pockets. Miriam could only hope.
“You know this is like grand theft boat or something, right?” Macy said as she trailed Miriam into the house.
Shadows stretched across the entry room, barely visible in the tiny amount of moonlight creeping through the wooden planks boarding up the windows. Miriam extracted her phone from her pocket and clicked on the flashlight. Macy followed suit.
“Fan out,” Miriam commanded. “Look for keys.”
“So, we’re ignoring the felony part of it. All righty, then.” Macy stepped away into the bedroom.
Before Miriam could properly investigate the living room, Macy screamed and stumbled back onto the linoleum that pretended to be a foyer, tears shining in her eyes.
“So... much... blood,” Macy eeked out.
Miriam didn’t feel the panic that Macy did, partially because she knew about what Tommy had seen, but also because she knew that Tanner was alive when he’d left the house. Whatever injuries he might have sustained, they could be mended. Healed. If they could find him in time.
“It’s okay, Macy. He’s fine. He’s alive. It looks worse than it is.”
Macy nodded, “Um, I hope so. Yeah. I know. I just... it freaked me out. I’m gonna stand right here if that’s okay.”
Miriam patted Macy’s shoulder, then swept the room with her flashlight. A bloody baseball bat against the hearth. A rickety chair pushed against the wall next to the bedroom. Miriam tried to put herself in Newt’s shoes.
“You can stay there, but follow me with your light,” she told Macy as she turned off her own light and slipped the phone into her pocket.
Miriam walked into the room and reached into her pocket, as if to pull out imaginary keys. She reached her arm out and searched the room for somewhere she might hypothetically put them. The furniture was sparse, the mantle serving as the only surface. But it sat empty, and coated with dust.
If he didn’t take them out of his pocket right when he came in, then when? Probably when he realized he’d be cleaning. She glanced through the tiny hole above the kitchen sink and saw a blue cap to a large plastic jug. A cleaning supply of some sort. One that might have been stored under the sink — it’s where her dad had always stored such things.
Engaging the light on her phone once more, Miriam said, “I’ll be right back.”
She went around the corner into the small galley kitchen. She skimmed the light over the counters, frustrated with no promising gleams of metal that might be keys. She rounded back to the living room, where Macy stood expectantly.
“Did you find them?” Macy hissed in a frantic whisper.
Miriam shook her head, still surveying the house. They needed the boat. She couldn’t see a path forward without it. As she played out mentally the kind of man Newt was, her mind latched on to one last possibility.
“Come on!” she shouted, not bothering to whisper as she bounded out of the house.
Newt’s beat-up truck sat along the curb, fishing poles leaning into racks, as if they served as fortification against attack. But Cape Madre was small, Newt’s truck was worthless, and he seemed like just the kind of guy who might...
Miriam opened the driver’s side door. Hoisting herself up into the driver’s seat, she reached for the visor, flipped it down, and smiled when the tangle of keys literally fell into her lap. No guarantee that this ring held the key she needed, but it was her best hope.
She held them up for Macy to see through the windshield. “Bingo!”
***
The parking lot of the Shady Shark Motel almost felt like home. As soon as Macy put the car in park, Miriam pounced out of the car and jogged towards the Mama Jean. She carried with her the baseball bat found at Newt’s. Macy thought it crude to be carrying a bat bathed in Tanner’s blood, but it was the only weapon Miriam had quick access to, and she found gleeful irony in using it to rescue him.
Macy followed across the parking lot. The docks seemed deserted, which gave Miriam some comfort. Everyone knew who owned the Mama Jean, and she didn’t want anyone trying to stop her.
The dock that previously served as the home for Madre’s Mayhem sat empty now, confirming Newt’s theory that Bark had taken Tanner out to sea. They were on the right track. Miriam felt sure of it.
Miriam scrambled onto the boat just as Macy caught up, breathing hard. “What if none of those keys work?”
Stretching out a hand to pull Macy on the boat, Miriam replied, “You sure ‘what if’ a lot.”
Both on board, Miriam made her way to the cockpit and tried the keys in the ignition. It only took two tries before she found the right one, cranked it, and heard Mama Jean’s motor sputter to life. It had been a while since Miriam piloted a boat, and never one quite this big.
Macy joined her inside. “Don’t forget to call Detective Wallace. Tell him about the Diplo... parasite thingy.”
Right. Miriam pulled her phone out, navigated to her recent calls, and tapped the number that would connect her to Tommy. Hopefully he wouldn’t protest too much when she asked him to take the ridiculous action of testing Newt for brain parasites.
The phone rang once.
Then a ring tone echoed into the night air. Weird. Miriam glanced to Macy to see if maybe she was receiving a call, but Macy’s wide eyes looked as confused as Macy.
A second ring.
The ring tone again.
Miriam hung up, put it all together, and whirled to her right just as a shadowed figure came around the corner through the door.
“Couldn’t let me do it on my own?” Miriam said to the shadow.
Still without his jacket, sleeves rolled up, tie discarded, Tommy Wallace stepped into the cockpit. Miriam worried that he’d come to stop her, but when she scanned his tired, scruffy face and saw the desperation in his eyes, she knew that he wouldn’t. He needed to find Stacy, just like she needed to find Tanner.
“I should be arresting you for grand larceny,” he said.
“Grand larceny,” Miriam mused, feeling a little like a comic-book villain. “So, it’s not called Grand Theft Boat. I’m impressed, Detective Tommy. That you managed to find us.”
He shrugged. “I knew you’d go for a boat. Asked Newt if he had his keys. When he told me where he’d left them, I knew it was the only play you had.”
Macy fidgeted, sheepishly. “Are we in trouble?”
Tommy sighed. “Probably. But we’ll figure it out after we find Stacy.”
“And Tanner,” Miriam added.
He nodded. “And Tanner.”
